Sunday, 28 June 2009

Oil boom threatens the last orang-utans

A famous British company, Jardines, is profiting as the lowland forest – which shelters the few remaining orang-utans – is razed to make way for massive palm oil plantations, reports Kathy Marks in Tripa, Indonesia

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Perched halfway up a tree near a bend in the Seumayan River, a young orang-utan lounges on a branch, eating fruit. In the distance, smoke rises from an illegal fire, one of dozens lit to wipe out the virgin rainforest and replace it with oil palm plantations.

It's burning season on Indonesia's Sumatra island, where vast tracts of vegetation are being torched and clear-felled to meet the soaring global demand for palm oil. The pace is especially frenzied in the peat swamp forests of the Tripa region, one of the final refuges of the critically endangered orang-utan – and a company owned by one of Britain's most venerable trading groups is among those leading the destructive charge.

Prized for its productiveness and versatility, palm oil is used in everything from lipstick and detergent to chocolate, crisps and biofuels. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's biggest palm oil producers – but they also shelter the last remaining orang-utans, found only on Sumatra and Borneo islands in the same lowland forests that are being razed to make way for massive plantations.

In Indonesia, one of the largest palm oil companies is Astra Agro Lestari, a subsidiary of Astra International, a Jakarta-based conglomerate which is itself part of Jardine Matheson, a 177-year-old group that made a fortune from the Chinese opium trade and is still controlled by a Scottish family, the Keswicks, descendants of the original founders.

Conservation groups are targeting supermarkets in Britain to alert consumers to the effects of the palm oil explosion. But The Independent can reveal that Jardines, registered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange, is implicated through Astra Agro in ripping out the final vestiges of orang-utan habitat.

Environmentalists are dismayed by the activities of Astra Agro, one of the main companies operating in Tripa under permits that were awarded during the 1990s by the notoriously corrupt Suharto government. They point out that Tripa belongs to the nominally protected Leuser Eco-System, renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, and claim that the plantation businesses are contravening a logging moratorium as well as engaging in illegal practices including burning land.

Greenpeace UK says: "It's scandalous that a British company is bankrolling the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands. We need to see big firms like Jardines withdrawing investment from companies involved in rainforest clearance."

Orang-utans are vanishing at an alarming rate in Borneo but in Sumatra their situation is even more precarious. The Sumatran orang-utan – more intelligent and sociable than its Borneo cousin and with a unique culture of tool use – is likely to be the first great ape species to go extinct.

There are believed to be just 6,600 individuals left, mostly living in unprotected areas of Aceh province. Their lowland forests remained relatively undisturbed during the long-running separatist war in Aceh, but since a peace agreement was signed in 2005, it has been open season.

The primates are now splintered across 11 pockets of jungle, with only three populations considered viable. Another three, including Tripa, are borderline viable. Elsewhere, the orang-utans – which use sticks to extract insects from trees and seeds from fruit – are effectively extinct. As their territory shrinks, along with their food supplies, the apes are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. Farmers shoot those caught raiding crops; babies are captured and sold as pets. Adults discovered in oil palm plantations may be hacked to death with machetes.

In Tripa, more than half of the 62,000 hectares of ancient forest has gone. As well as being home to endangered species including the sun bear and clouded leopard, the peat swamps acted as a protective buffer during the 2004 tsunami. They also hold gigantic carbon stocks which are now being released, exacerbating climate change. "If you can't save Tripa, what can you save?" asks Denis Ruysschaert, forest co-ordinator for PanEco, a Swiss environmental organisation.

Sumatra is a beautiful island, with jungle-clad mountains and picturesque villages where long-horned water buffalo wander. But it is difficult not to be shocked by the colonisation of the landscape by one short, stumpy tree: oil palm. The monoculture is a desolate sight, stretching for miles, relieved only by charred hillsides dotted with tree stumps – cleared land awaiting yet more oil palms. Trucks rattle past, laden with the prickly red fruit from which oil is extracted. In Aceh, they call it the "golden plant" – the cash crop that is lifting the province out of poverty and helping it rebuild after the tsunami. "Recently there's a frenzy to plant oil palm," says Fransisca Ariantiningsih, who works for Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (Yel), an Indonesian conservation group.

On Sumatra's west coast, a small-time farmer, Raluwan, is nursing his seedlings. Ten families, he explains, have logged and burnt 100 hectares of land. Each hectare will yield four tonnes of fruit, fetching 800 Rupiah (47 pence) a kilo."I used to grow chilli, but palm oil is a very economical crop," he declares. "You don't need much pesticide or fertiliser." Raluwan knows orang-utans live in the nearby forests. "I don't care," he says. "I've got to feed my family."

However, many are missing out as the industry grows to meet demand from Europe, the US, China and India. Most plantation workers are migrants from Java and in Tripa, communities that depend on the swamps for water, fish and medicinal plants are suffering.

Kuala Seumayan is hemmed in by plantations. Villagers say they no longer have space even to bury their dead. "Since the forest has been chopped down, it's difficult to get food," says one elder, Darmizi. In the Seumayan River, youngsters dive for freshwater clams while children squeal and splash in the placid brown waters. It's an idyllic scene, but something is missing: the sights and sounds of the forest. The only wildlife consists of a hornbill and two long-tailed macaques. Indrianto, a forestry manager, says: "This used to be all peat swamp, with many trees and animals. Now it's all oil palm. Before, I heard animal calls. Now I hear only chainsaws."

By chance, we spot an orang-utan in a solitary tree. Tripa has just 280 apes left. The young male, its fur glowing in the afternoon sun, curls one arm lazily over an upper branch.

A black slick floats on the water: sludge from one of many canals dug to drain the swamps. The arduous procedure is considered preferable to planting on fallow land, which would require negotiations with landowners. This way, the companies also get to sell the timber. As you fly over Tripa, the scale of destruction becomes clear. The green tangle of the forest, in all its riotous variety, abruptly gives way to giant rectangles, laid out with geometrical precision and studded with thousands of palms.

Riswan Zen, a spatial analyst for Yel, last flew over in 2007. "So much forest gone, and all in two years, my God," he says, gesticulating at a satellite imaging map. "If nothing is done, there'll be no forest left in one to two years."

Tripa, designated a priority conservation site by the UN, could hold 1,500 orang-utans if the forest was allowed to regenerate. Prospects seem slim, although Indonesia – one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, thanks to deforestation – claims to be committed both to saving the orang-utan and combating climate change.

Fewer than a quarter of Indonesian producers have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global organisation promoting sustainable practices. (Astra Agro is not among them.) Even in Aceh, where Governor Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader, has proclaimed a "Green Vision", authorities seem unwilling to crack down on the powerful oil palm companies.

So far, Jardines, whose colourful history inspired a series of novels by James Clavell, has resisted pressure to rein in its Indonesian subsidiary. In a statement to The Independent, Jardines – whose interests include the Mandarin Oriental hotels and Asian branches of Starbucks and IKEA – said Astra Agro's plantations "function in full compliance with ... environmental impact studies".

Astra Agro says it plans to develop only half of its 13,000 hectares in Tripa because of conservation concerns, and it denies any illegal activity.

Ian Singleton, a Briton who heads PanEco's Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme, has no doubt that oil palm is the biggest threat to the orang-utan: "I see the orang-utan as a test case. Are we serious about trying to conserve the planet's eco-systems? If we are, let's prove it by saving a species like the orang-utan. We know where the orang-utans are; all we have to do is protect the forests. If we're serious about conservation, this is where we start."

At a glance: Jardine Matheson

*Founded by two Scottish traders in Canton, China in 1832, it was the first British trading company to smash the East India Company's Asian monopoly.

*Founder William Jardine was known as "the iron-headed old rat" for his toughness and asperity.

*The company's fortunes were founded on smuggling huge quantities of opium into China, creating millions of addicts.

*When the Chinese fought back, Jardine persuaded the British government to launch the First Opium War against China.

*Astra Agro, a subsidiary of the company, claims that "concern for the environment" is "an integral part of all the company's activities".

Something to think about

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Abuse and humiliation of orangutans stopped?

Good news. From March 29 2010 the use of orangutans in circus-like shows in Malaysia has been officially banned. Let us know at once if you see anyone breaking this law....this animal park was caught doing so by Nature Alert.

SHAME ON MALAYSIA

The government owned Melaka Zoo forces this orangutan to take part in degrading and inhumane shows. Note the lack of hair on this orangutan's arms and lower body.

Information is power, when put to good use.

If you find what you see here to be interesting, do you think some of your friends might also like to know more about orangutans?

Please could you invite as many people as you can to visit this blog and subscribe to the news posts? As you can see and read, orangutans need all the help they can get.

Many thanks.Nature Alert

Nine years secured to a three metre chain. Imagine if you will.

"Mely" enjoying fruit supplied by COP and Nature Alert.

Waiting to be rescued

Under lock and chain for at least nine years.

How governments do deals which wreck environments, people and countries

Highly Recommended reading and available from Amazon

Chained up day and night.

But confiscated and rescued by COP in January 2010.

COP to the rescue

The final moments before being released forever from the heavy chain around its neck.

A helping hand

After maybe nine years of being confined to a wooden crate this orangutan is now on the way to a rescue centre and one day back to the forest.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

What changes the world for the better is the passion of certain individuals, not governments, not big organisations.

Paul Watson
Sea Shepherd

Highly Recommended Book

Available from Amazon and by far the best book ever written on orangutan conservation.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

Another palm oil victim - one of tens of thousands - so far.

For a close up of this brutally treated orangutan, please see below.

Mother shot and eaten. Baby beaten and tied to a pole.

The plight of a baby orangutan rescued from a palm oil plantation workers in Borneo has exposed the high price these endangered primates are paying for the production of palm oil. The 2-3 year old female was found hogtied to a pole and had clearly been brutally beaten. Covered in cuts and bruises, she was also severely dehydrated and emaciated after being starved for days or even weeks.

Palm oil kills - no doubt about it.

Villagers protest against palm oil companies.

Tropical forest, home to orangutans etc.

Threatened by palm oil companies.

Saved by COP

Mother murdered by palm oil company

Tortured by palm oil company employees

Rescued and treated by COP, this orangutan has since been released back into a forest.

Palm oil plantation victim

Orphaned by a palm oil company with help from the government of Indonesia.

Indonesia's Alcatraz for orangutans

A living hell for this orangutan.

Guilty of being an orangutan

A prisoner held by the Indonesian government

Shame on the Ministry of Forestry

A life behind bars. Why?

Day after day, 24/7 ..........

A magnificent male orangutan facing life imprisonment behind bars.

Kept prisoner in filth and squalor

Things just go from bad to worse

Solitary confinement .

There can be no excuse for treating an orangutan like this.

Welcome to Indonesia

Where orangutans are incarcerated by the government.

No hope?

Has this orangutan lost the will to live?

Shame on Minister Kaban

Young orangutan in a 1.5 sq. metre cage 24 hours a day and tormented by zoo visitors.

What future do you think this orangutan has?

How much longer can the Indonesian government carry on abusing and killing orangutans?

Born in the wild.

Life behind bars - where the government of Indonesia prefers to see its orangutans.

Dying for help

With their mothers slaughtered these baby orangutans face a life of torment, torture and hunger, thanks to the government of Indonesia.

Torture chambers for orangutans at an Indonesian zoo

These orangutans have been kept like this for nine months. Until Nature Alert and COP protested the cages were left outside in all weathers.

Solitary confinement courtesy of Indonesian zoo

Caged like this 24/7 for nine months, with no end in sight.

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right."Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.

Formerly home to orangutans and other wildlife.

Part of the price we all pay for palm oil.

Can you see the rainforest?

No? That's the way the palm oil companies like to see things.

Begging for food - not for fun.

Reduced to begging for food, this orangutan (one of two) is in a unofficial zoo in West Kalimantan. Their enclosure has nothing but bare earth, no protection from a blisteringly hot sun, a concrete tube to shelter/sleep in and no fresh water to drink.

Bored and hungry - for as long as this orangutans lives

Born to be free. Imprisioned for life.

The COP Rapid Response Team

Their arrival in a remote village often generates a lot of interest. Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details..

Saved by COP

Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details.

Mother killed and her baby tied up like this for six months.

We found her at the home of a family who had bought her from her mothers killer. Please see photo immediately below - she is now safe, rescued by COP with the local Forestry Police.

Safe and sound - now

Saved by The Centre for Orangutan Protection and its sponsors/supporters.

Another palm oil victim

Rescued by COP and The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

With its mother killed this orangutan's new owner keeps it chained up.

A baby orangutan with nowhere to go. A mother's love replaced with a chain.

How very, very sad.

What hope is there for this orangutan?

In this small crate there really is an orangutan.

Torture takes many different forms when it comes to dealing with orangutans.

Alone and abused.

Yes. There is an orangutan in this cage.

Chained to, rather than living in a tree.

There's no escape.

At a West Borneo amusement park.

Look at the rubbish this orangutan has to live with.

Escape is not an option.

same as picture below.

Yet another victim of logging and/or palm oil.

Alone, malnourished and very sad in a transit centre.

Palm oil companies take everything.

Imagine; this was once a rainforest.

Life imprisonment

Five adult orangutans are crammed into this dark, featureless cage in a zoo. All five began life in the wild.

Orphaned by loggers or palm oil companies - often the same thing.

Missing its mother. Look at her eyes and you have to wonder what she is thinking don't you? STOP PRESS this baby has since died.

A little light refreshment goes a long way.

Water melon was always a firm favourite of the orangutans. In all the differnt locations we never once saw fresh drinking water provided.

A Tasty treat

Everywhere we went we took lots of different fresh fruit to give to the hungry orangutans we always discovered in various locations.

Same location as above.

We provided food and some small branches, and they loved both.

Again, the same location

We hope we made him a little happier than he appears. The lives of these two orangutans must be almost unbearable. We hope to arrange their transfer to a rescue centre soon.

West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)

Two young orangutans kept at an amusement park. They were wild born. Mothers killed by loggers.

Rescued last year and now at a rehab. centre with an uncertain future.

This baby saw her mother being killed and eaten.

Lawbreakers

Illegal loggers

The torture of orangutans is seemingly never ending.

With its left arm chained and padlocked to its neck, this orangutan is literally being tortured at an amusement park in West Kalimantan (Borneo)

Awaiting rescue from what was once its home.

With nowhere left to run, this tranquillized orangutan was rescued and moved to another forest.

Apocalypse now - Indonesian style with help from Malaysian companies.

Rescuers looking for orangutans made homeless by a palm oil company. Virgin rainforest recently stood where there is nothing but a few small trees remaining, which by now will also have been cleared away. Nov. 2007

Yet another palm oil victim

With its mother killed, this baby with an injured eye was caged by workers until rescued by WWF Indonesia.

Illegal loggers in action. October 2007

Access to log these trees illegally was gained via a palm oil plantation road. This forest is home to 50 orangutans and palm oil companies want to log it.

The road to ruin - Indonesia style.

Where once stood a magnificent rainforest full of wildlife.

Mother and baby orangutan.

Oil palm companies have killed thousands like these two.

Palm oil victim. Mother killed.

This baby will have seen its mother slain.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, left of the forest, except for its soil.

It's all about money, greed and corruption.

Destruction and desolation as far as the eye can see

So much for Borneo's rainforests - look what palm oil companies have done to them.

They can barely cut down and remove the trees quick enough for their liking.